AUGUSTA – Shame on you if you never equated cheerleading with adversity, pain and true grit.

Cheering hurts. Just ask Lisbon senior Robin Littlefield, who fell awkwardly on her left ankle during practice Friday night. Or Poland coach Tiffany Fortier, who sported the beginnings of a black eye after catching a flying elbow from one of her tumblers during the warmup prior to Saturday’s Western Maine championships.

The rewards, however, are fantastic medicine. Neither sprain nor shiner kept Fortier’s Knights from claiming their second straight Western Class B crown and Littlefield’s Greyhounds from fetching the Class C regional title at Augusta Civic Center. For the second time in a week, Poland (148.7 points out of a possible 175) outdistanced Western Maine Conference rivals Gorham (143.7) and Wells (141.7), the same two teams it beat to win the league meet.

There, Fortier observed that Gorham was technically strong while Wells exhibited a high-energy, entertaining routine. She felt that the Knights’ repertoire gave the five judges and several thousand spectators the best of both worlds.

“I hope that proved it,” Fortier said. “We really pride ourselves on having a high-energy routine that also is technically sound.”

Last-minute occupational hazards were worth the temporary sting, Fortier said, when she considered what dividends the extra tumbling practice paid.

While many other teams have five or six tumblers, 13 of Poland’s 16 competitors do some form of tumbling. On a newly reconfigured scoresheet that incorporates degree of difficuilty, those acrobatics gave the Knights an advantage over the competition before the first beats of music blared from the speakers. “That’s like a three-point advantage right off the bat,” Fortier said. “This sport is growing so fast, and a big element of that is gymnastics.”

One of Poland’s main concerns was a draw that sent them out relatively early, sixth out of 13 Class B teams. But another new regional rule, one eliminating callbacks for the top 50 percent of teams and giving each squad only one shot, probably helped nullify that potential disadvantage.

“I just said, ‘Let’s go out and give the crowd the performance of a lifetime,'” Fortier said.

The top six teams in each class advanced to states, which are Feb. 7 in Augusta. Gray-New Gloucester, Mountain Valley and York rounded out the Class B qualifiers.

Local schools dominated Class C. What was intended as a final dress rehearsal before the competition had consequences that brought choppy sleep to many people affiliated with the Greyhounds, though.

Littlefield, one of four Lisbon seniors, tweaked her ankle while executing a stunt at practice.

“I thought I’d get here this morning, see the trainer and he would tell me there was no way I could go out there, that it would only make it worse,” Littlefield said. “But he just taped it up and I was fine. I never noticed the pain until I got off the floor.”

That agony was easily exceeded by the short length of time between Lisbon’s routine — next-to-last out of 11 on the agenda — and the announcement of the six state qualifiers.

The hand-holding in Section 11 of the civic center’s blue bleachers grew tighter as the public address announcer called off school names in ascending order. First came Old Orchard Beach of the WMC, then Boothbay, which began a Mountain Valley Conference sweep.

Next came Monmouth, owner of a state record eight state championships, followed by St. Dominic, winner of four of the last five Class C crowns and considered one of this year’s favorites. Eyes, many already welling up with tears, opened wide.

Coaches received the scores in a private room prior to the announcement. so once Dirigo was presented as runner-up, the Lisbon delegation exploded in embraces and applause.

In the final tabulations, it wasn’t as close as the frayed nerves would indicate. Lisbon finished with 125.2 points. Dirigo (115) moved ahead of St. Dom’s (113.7) thanks to a five-point deduction from the Saints’ final tally.

“The girls’ heart was unbelievable,” said Lisbon coach Kristina Doughty, a former Lisbon cheerleader who graduated in 1994, two years before the program won its last regional championship. “They’re experienced. They’ve all been cheering since they were very young.”

Championship caliber cheering is a new experience at Dirigo, where coaches Tammy Conlogue, Stephany Jacques and Jessica Casey guided the Cougars to their first-ever appearance in the state meet.

Dirigo finished third in the MVC meet at Jay two Saturdays ago but wasn’t shy about making changes to improve its odds in the pressure-packed regional atmosphere.

“We added five more tumblers from two weeks ago. We don’t even know what we’ll change between now and states,” said Conlogue. “(At MVCs) we finished behind Mountain Valley, a Class B school, and Lisbon, which was a Class B team last year. We’ve always been a Class C school. That’s how we had to look at it psychologically.”

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